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In the 1950s I used to beg straw from the long oblong banana boxes at the greengrocers for my rabbits and guinea pigs. I was warned about spiders and as I got older thought it was just a scare story to put the wind up a little girl, but now I know different, but never came across one...

lovely, handled one of these at Longleat in July with the grandchildren!

Thanks garlicpickle - I have noticed that they are not aggressive and have no trouble removing them gently from the hive roof. Perhaps I should just leave them there as you say they don't stalk prey, I don't think they should be a problem to the bees then!

Does anyone know anything about these apart from them being poisonous? This is the second time I have found one tucked away in the roof of one of my hives. I wonder if they kill bees, no dead bees there! Wish they would eat the varroa! I carefully removed it, showed the grandchildren with a...

Sounds like one holy mess that looks as though it will take off and the gargoyles on the cathedrals will be pleased and the cathedral shop can look forward to some very expensive honey to help with the running costs of the buildings. On the garden note - I was nearly put off by the very...

They all come flat packed unless you pay extra, Caddon hives do really good nationals and I have ordered them - roof comes assembled and the rest is packed inside. I have just ordered a couple more supers for next year, great value and easy to assemble. Whatever you do don't by plywood from...

Yes I too make my own on Word and put some of my own photos on them. Easy and makes them more interesting.

I got 30lb a few weeks ago and 52lb last weekend, vitually from two hives with a little from one hive that was split earlier in the year. Quite pleased with the results considering how poor the weather has been. There may be a little more, have left supers on with uncapped honey and if the...

No don't use it, there are things in it that are not good for the bees buy normal white sugar.

I seem to recall from the workshop that there was a dvd available on pollen recognition and Northern Bee Books sell it (hope me memory is serving me well here as it was more than a year ago! )

Thanks for all the answers everyone! We had a pollen recognition workshop at our association last year and I was really keen to give it a go but the 'expert' said that it is very difficult to identify the different pollens and it takes experience and experts such as the forensic scientists, It...

Thanks - I extacted with my electric 4 frame extractor - I filtered with a fine seive and also with fine muslin to just remove the debri as last year but it didn't make any difference. I didn't check the moisture content as I don't have a refractometer (do many beekeepers have this expensive...

I did my first honey harvest on Monday and used exactly the same method as last year but the honey is cloudy. I thought I had done the right thing by not harvesting before because of the bad weather and leaving the bees short of stores. It still tastes delicious but doesn't look great - last...

I make my own and have never put anything but sugar and liquid glucose (from Sainsburys) in it. You don't need any additives other than that.

According to the BBC website they will be discussing 'falling bee numbers'! Lets hope they do a comprehensive assessment rather than fall back on the old ' its the decline of wildflower meadows' approach! Louise

Sorry it wasn't on last night, will try and find out when and post a note. This information came for the BBKA chair to our association chair but clearly there was no certainty about when!

feeding, feeding! Put some fondant on one hive as the 2pints of syrup went in 24 hours. Two hives were too dopey to use the rapid feeders, they were hungry but didn't seem able to find the syrup, so switched it to the contact feeders, and will top up later. Lovely sunshine this morning, bees...

At this rate we will have to build an ark, feeding the bees as their stores are so low as to be almost non existent. Lets hope May brings some sunshine.

Lactic acid is less harsh while they are broodless!